Craig Schneider
Craig Schneider was a contestant on Season 4 of Hell's Kitchen. He ranked in 12th place. Personality Craig was very confident coming into the competition despite being the shortest man on the team, and tried his best to do well for the team. Unfortunately, his cooking was sub-par at best, and he turned the entire team against him after he single-handedly cost them the challenge, after which he became non-commutative and prone to violent outbursts, which lead to his elimination. Season 4 Episode 1 Before coming to Hell's Kitchen, on the bus, Craig declared that the way he was looking at the competition was to say "Fuck you!" to everybody. During the Signature Dish Challenge, Craig was the first person to have his dish judged by Ramsay. When he presented himself, Ramsay noticed his chef hat, and asked him to describe his dish, which was a Chilean sea bass. Ramsay found it too sweet, and called it a pile of shit. Ramsay also told him that if he was to come in the kitchen with his ridiculous hat, he would stick it in his ass sideways. During dinner service, Craig was on the floater station. He made a comment when Jason arrived in the kitchen after the service began, comparing him to a magician, like if he disappeared. Much later, when the team was struggling, he remarked Bobby's laid-back attitude, and that as a captain, saying that he does not want to get in the chaos is basically like saying "Fuck you I quit". The blue team eventually lost the dinner service, and Louross was named "Best of the Worst". He was not nominated for elimination. Episode 2 The next morning, the Sous Chefs woke up all the contestants while holding megaphones, and told them to get outside immediately. Arrived outside, they went through the garbage bags from the previous service to select every food from them, and sort them in big cylinders. When they got back in the kitchen, Ramsay introduced the 6 Ounce Halibut Challenge. When the blue team was done, Craig brought the batch to Ramsay for judging, and 41 of their 50 pieces were accepted, ending the score in a tie. The blue team eventually won after the tiebreaker, and was rewarded with a day at the sea, on a 100-foot super yacht where they ate seafood meals with Ramsay, and were transported there by Rolls-Royce and Bentleys. During the reward, the men shouted "Whose yacht?" and responded "Blue's yacht!", referring to one of Jen's antics before they left. During prep, the level of confidence in the blue team was high. During dinner service, Craig was assigned as an assistant maître d', helping Jean-Philippe in the dining room, along with Rosann from the red team. He was slow to bring his first ticket to the kitchen, and when he did, Ramsay mocked him by calling him "Chef Craig". Later into service, when he was carrying a high chair across the dining room, he accidentally hit a female customer with it behind the head. This blunder infuriated Jean-Philippe, who told him to go apologize. He went to the table and apologized to the woman, very timidly and embarrassed. His team eventually won the service after they served half of their entrées to the customers. Episode 3 The next morning, after a wake up call where each contestant had to grab a chicken and Ramsay making them falsely believe they would have to kill them, the latter introduced the Chicken Cutting Challenge. During the challenge, Craig was the slowest of the blue team, with Matt even comparing him to be as slow as molasses. When his pieces were judged, only 2 pieces out of his 8 were acceptable, making the blue team automatically lose the challenge 24-44. For their punishment, they had to pick peppers at a country side, with farmers clothes and hat on, under the hot boiling sun. When they were getting ready, he laid on his bed, knowing he was the weakest link, at the same time as Matt was throwing a tantrum at him while getting changed. During the punishment, Ben threw some peppers at him, which he did not appreciate. During prep, Craig was annoying Bobby because of his way of not doing anything and being completely lost. During dinner service, he was on the appetizer station with Petrozza. When Ben and Matt asked him how much time it would take him to make his first risotto, he told that he said two minutes thirty seconds before, and that they had to do the math. When Ramsay asked him how long, he was schooled on his behavior, and told to communicate. After that, he got into a little argument with Matt, when he told the latter to shut the fuck up. Matt compared him to Edith's character in "All In The Family". Later, when he was asked by Ben for the bacon, he declared he did not have it yet. So, Ramsay made a painful decision, which was sending an incomplete order, where half of the table would eat, and the other would stare. When Ramsay asked him if he was happy, he answered that he was not. When he finally delivered bacon to the pass, Ramsay sent the rest of the table out. Hours after, Ramsay shut down both kitchens, declared both of them losers, and named Petrozza "Best of the Worst" for the blue team. During deliberation, Craig was considered by Petrozza, who acknowledged the rest of the team would like to get rid of him. Despite that, he was not nominated for elimination. Episode 4 When all the contestants got back to the dorms, Ramsay called them on the microphone, ordering to get down so they could clean their kitchens. During the Pasta Making Challenge, near the end, Craig was holding the pasta to go in the machine, but he was doing it wrong, so Louross told him how to properly do it. But, Bobby pushed him to the side and rolled the pasta himself, which annoyed him, who told everybody would like to make themselves look good and make other people look like shit. But he stood there, not helping, and Ramsay called him a "lazy little fucker" and told him to move. The blue team lost the challenge as they managed to get 5.48 lbs of acceptable pasta, compared to the red team's 6.57 lbs. Their punishment was to prep all the new Family Night menu items, all day long, for both kitchens. When the blue team got back to the dorms after the challenge, Craig spent some time alone, away from his team, while Louross was pointing fingers at him, saying he was not a team player. During prep, everybody was trying to rally behind him, as he was deemed the weakest link at that point, but he gave all of them attitude saying pasta was easy to cook and that they should shut the fuck up. During Family Night dinner service, Craig was on the pasta station. Two hours in, he brought a meatball spaghetti to the pass when a spaghetti of clams was on order. Ramsay called the ticket again, and asked for a spaghetti of clams quickly, but when hen he sent it, it turned out raw. Ramsay furiously asked him to start again, but when Bobby came over to help, he repeatedly said he had it, and when Ramsay asked for a time, he did not answer. When his entire team asked him the same question, he disrespectfully shouted two minutes. After the red team finished all their tickets and were sent to the blue kitchen to help the men finish, he refused Shayna's help, constantly saying he got it. After Ramsay called out another ticket, and asked Craig how long for the spaghetti of clams, he failed to answer, so Ramsay became furious, and Matt tried to convince him to answer. Then, Ramsay told he was making him feel nervous, before he grabbed a hot pan with his bare hands, burning himself in the process. When everybody, including Ramsay, were asking Craig a time, he lost his patience and disrespectfully told it was coming right now, and that they had to fucking listen. He threw a pan in anger while everybody was staring at him, disbelieving Ramsay. When the teams were lined up, Ramsay asked Craig if it was that difficult to cook pasta, which he answered it was not. The blue team lost the dinner service, and Bobby was named "Best of the Worst". Craig was Bobby's first nominee for elimination, with Matt being the second, and Ben eventually joined them. After revealing that he did not know what percentages were, he was eliminated by Ramsay for his terrible attitude, and being a constantly poor performer. Ramsay's comment: "I can teach someone how to cook, but Craig was a bad cook with an even worse attitude. There was no hope for him." Nomination history Trivia *After his appearance on the show, he returned to his previous role as Sous Chef at Hyatt Regency Hotel, in Long Island, New York. After that, he moved to various airports in the New York area as Assistant Food and Beverage Manager. Quotes *"I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it!!!" *"TWO MINUTES!" *"COMING UP RIGHT NOW! FUCKING LISTEN!" *(On why he should stay) "I don't know percentages, but just over that." *(About Bobby) "He's the captain. To be like aurahhh I don't want to join the chaos, it's almost like saying "Fuck you I quit"." *(After being eliminated) "My dream when I came to Hell's Kitchen was to get my own restaurant. I didn't do the job I was supposed to. I had a lot more to prove. I'm like stunned and amazed, like, that, this sucks." Category:Chef Category:Season 4 Category:New Yorkers Category:12th Place